Mariner Housewife is a chronicle of the ups and downs of your average Mariners devotee: the joy, the anguish, the sputtering rage and disbelief… but primarily the persistent optimism and unbridled loyalty of a genuine fan.

Off-Day Musings: If Being “Us” Is Wrong, I Don’t Want To Be Right

A few comments recently brought up an interesting point on the use of the words “we” or “us”. This is a discussion my Dad and I have had on occasion as well- is it incorrect to use “we” when you’re discussing the team specifically, as opposed to the collective of a team and its fan base? And I don’t even mean “we won,” or “we lost,” because that can be attributed the consolidated entity that consists of fans and players. I mean specifically referring to things that players or managers do. An example would be, “we only scored two runs against the Angels,” or, “now we’re headed into Tampa Bay.” Now there’s no ambiguity there- I did not personally score any runs against the Angels, and I am not going to Tampa Bay. So am I totally abusing the “we” word here?

A legitimate argument can be made for both sides of this debate. I’m usually something of a grammar purist, so it goes to show you how crazy baseball makes me when I tell you that I come down firmly on the side of using “we” like mad. I say it all the time, in fact I’m one of the worst “we” abusers in the history of baseball. It was at its worst shortly after I moved to the Northwest, and I was still transitioning from Cubs fan to Mariners fan. I would refer to anything the Cubs or the M’s did as “us” doing this and that. It led to some confusing, and somewhat hilarious, exchanges between myself and my completely non-baseball fan roommates.

I specifically remember one conversation with my roommate Jeff, who had never voluntarily watched a baseball game, and went back and forth between amused and annoyed by the fact that our tv was constantly tuned to one game or another. Our discussion went something like this:

(scene: late afternoon, ninth inning of Cubs game)

Me: Geez, we just cannot score against the Mets! It drives me crazy!Jeff: Oh, we can’t, eh? Me: Yeah, you know what I mean. We’ve lost two in a row to these guys, and it looks like we’re about to get swept. This is driving me mad.Jeff: Bummer. (returns to computer)

(About three hours pass. Jeff has not moved from his computer. I have gone out and eaten dinner, I’ve forgotten all about the Cubs, and I’m now ready to watch the Mariners play the White Sox at Safeco. I trot happily into the living room and turn on the game.)

Me: All right, bottom of the second and we’re already up two to nothing! Awesome, we have to win this game. Jeff: I thought you said we couldn’t score against them. Me: What? No, I didn’t say that. We beat them nine to one last night. Jeff: Wait, what? I thought we lost two in a row. Me: No way, dude, we’re winning this series. Jeff: But… is this the Mets?Me: No, what? We don’t play the Mets, they’re Nat.. oh. (chuckling patiently) Sorry, no, I see what you’re saying. No, I’m talking about the Mariners right now. Jeff: I don’t get it. Who’s “we”, is what I’m trying to figure out here. Me: Yeah, see, when I’m talking about the American League, the Mariners are “we”. But if I’m talking about the National League, then the Cubs are “we”. Jeff: What. The.Me: But then if I’m just talking about baseball in general, usually “we” means the Mariners. Sometimes it’s the Cubs, though, it just depends on the context, really. Jeff: (stares in pained silence)Me: And like if I’m talking about some game from when I was a kid, “we” is almost always the Cubs. Unless I’m talking about football, then “we” is the Broncos.Jeff: (stares in pained silence)Me: Do you want me to explain it again?Jeff: Um, I think I need to take a break from talking about this. Me: Fair enough.

So I can see why people are anti-”we”. It’s not technically correct, and it can be extremely confusing. I love it though, and I will probably continue to say it forever. It’s practically involuntary. And I can happily report that now when I say “we” I always just mean the Mariners; when I refer to the Cubs it’s usually with a sad shake of the head and a “those poor things”. And hey, I eventually even got Jeff to go to a couple of Mariners games! So maybe there’s something to be said for “us” after all.